State Assemblyman Introduces Bill To Arm School Guards

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) – In the wake of last week’s Florida school shooting, some leaders, including President Trump, believe more guns will help keep students safe. Here in California, a state lawmaker has introduced a bill that would arm school guards.

“Now that there’s policy that no CCW carrier can go onto a school campus in California, you know our students are sitting ducks,” said Assemblyman James Gallagher of Yuba City.

During a shooting spree last year in Rancho Tehama, the suspect barreled through school gates and fired multiple shots targeting children. It sparked lawmakers to stop gunman dead in their tracks.

“There’s really no one stopping the shooter as he’s walking onto an elementary campus,” he said.

Gallagher introduced AB 2067 earlier this month that “would require a school district to hire or contract with at least one armed security guard.”

While some may agree, one expert says arming guards with guns isn’t the answer.

“It’s going to be a lot of money to create this program and I’m a little concerned about the level of training security guard will need to be proficient in an active shooter situation,” said Jeff Solomon with D-Prep who trains schools across the country on safety. “If you look at the recent case in Florida, there were a lot of opportunities to stop this.”

So we asked, if not guns what will stop an active shooter?

“When school’s in session their classroom door is locked,” he said is number one.

“There have been very few if any instances where people have been able to breach a locked classroom door and kill people,” Solomon said. “Where they get a high body count is when these guys come in and kids are huddled in a corner and they are restricted with their access, so by preventing them from entering the classroom or giving them a five-minute structural integrity delay will assist in law-enforcement getting there.”

Solomon also said another way to stop it is reporting and acting on warning signs before it’s too late.

“Where we are going to win this and have the most prevention efforts is in behavioral intervention — getting people trained up on campus to understand what red flags we should be looking for,” he said.

While Gallagher agrees more needs to be done, he said campuses just cannot be unarmed.

“The sad reality is that we still have people out there that are getting access to guns and they are caring out atrocious acts,” the assemblyman said.

The bill will go before an educational committee and Gallagher hopes to have bipartisan support.